Former boxing champion Mike Tyson has called on President Joe Biden to grant clemency to all federal marijuana offenders, declaring the “war on marijuana” over.
Tyson, himself a cannabis grower, called upon the White House to grant clemency in a recently-released letter.
“I write in support of granting clemency to marijuana offenders still incarcerated in federal prison and restoring civil rights to those haunted by a federal marijuana conviction,” the letter began.
A cannabis plant grows in the Amsterdam Cannabis College, a nonprofit charitable organization that gives information on cannabis and hemp use on February 7, 2007, in Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Tyson said that he will be adding his name to the Weldon Project, which calls for the general pardon of federal marijuana offenders.
“In September 2021, you received a letter from the Weldon Project — signed by dozens of artists, athletes, lawmakers, law enforcement officials, academics, business leaders, policy experts, reform advocates, and other professionals — asking you to issue a general pardon for federal marijuana offenders,” he wrote.
“Today, I join the Weldon Project, Drake, Killer Mike, T.I., Deion Sanders, Bella Thorne, Jim Brown, and many others in calling upon you to end the madness of federal marijuana prohibition,” he added.
As noted by Fox News, Biden has granted several pardons for “simple federal and D.C. possession of marijuana offenses, but there are still at least 3,000 others currently incarcerated serving marijuana-related sentences. ”
In his letter calling for clemency, Tyson said that the “war on drugs” has crushed souls and ruined countless futures while “spreading intolerable levels of mistrust and dysfunction between minority communities and those sworn to protect them.”
“I grew up in tough neighborhoods where people lived in fear of drug warriors, and I’ve seen the heavy cost paid by the poor and people of color. It’s past time to reconcile with these communities,” the letter continued.
Mike Tyson speaks onstage during the “Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth” panel discussion at the HBO portion of the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour – Day 2 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 25, 2013, in Beverly Hills, California. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
“Marijuana should not be a crime. Americans today reject marijuana prohibition in public opinion polls and through legalization efforts across the nation, he concluded. “The U.S. government should no longer use marijuana as a reason to lock people up. The first step is to release the remaining people incarcerated federally under America’s war on marijuana and to wipe the slate clean for those convicted of federal marijuana offenses.”
As Breitbart News reported last year, a study shows that marijuana use has reached record levels for young adults and may soon become a practice among the majority. According to a Monitoring the Future study by scientists at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, marijuana and hallucinogen use steadily climbed among young adults between 19 and 30 compared to just ten years ago:
Past-year, past-month and daily marijuana use (use on 20 or more occasions in the past 30 days) reached the highest levels ever recorded since these trends were first monitored in 1988. Marijuana use in the past month was reported by 29% of young adults in 2021, compared to 21% five years ago (2016) and 17% 10 years ago (2011). Daily marijuana use also significantly increased during these time periods, reported by 11% of young adults in 2021, a significant increase from 8% in 2016 and 6% in 2011.
Past-year hallucinogen use had been relatively stable over the past few decades until 2020, when reports of use started to increase dramatically. In 2021, 8% of young adults reported past-year hallucinogen use, representing an all-time high since the category was first surveyed in 1988. By comparison, in 2016, 5% of young adults reported past-year hallucinogen use, and in 2011, only 3% reported use.
Alcohol still remains the popular substance of choice among young adults, while binge drinking and high-intensity drinking has seen an uptick since the pandemic.
The study came months after a U.K. study published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry showed people who use cannabis with a THC potency above five to ten milligrams per gram have a higher risk of addiction and mental health problems. Study co-author Tom Freeman, director of the addiction and mental health group at the U.K.’s University of Bath, told CNN in an email at the time that high-potency cannabis users have a “four-fold increased risk of addiction” over low potency cannabis users.
“A report by the United Nations found that in the past two decades, the proportion of people seeking treatment for cannabis addiction has risen in all world regions apart from Africa,” he said.
Roughly three in ten people in the United States have been diagnosed with marijuana addiction, according to statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Likewise, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction found a 76 percent increase in treatment for marijuana addiction over the past decade.
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